If you want honest government, vote accordingly

Bearing false witness is clearly not a Christian value. Practicing crony capitalism is the opposite of free enterprise. And hiding behind lies to avoid personal responsibility is simply low.

I’m supporting Jim Pendergraph because I’m fed up with being lied about by Robert Pittenger and his pal Tommy Tucker. I’ve asked them both nicely to quit spreading lies about me. Apparently nice doesn’t work with some people.

In 2010 Tommy Tucker spread outrageous lies about me to get elected to the NC Senate and I took the high road. Now Robert Pittenger is doing the same thing to Jim Pendergraph to get elected to Congress, but he is also helping Tucker spread still more lies about me. Some good people are repeating their false statements because they don’t know any better, but follow the money and you’ll find the truth.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am the opposite of a tax-and-spend liberal, but the fact I fought so hard for liberty that Freedomworks gave me their Liberty Tree Award didn’t stop the crony capitalists from tarring me as someone who wants to raise your taxes. (Talk about a big lie; that was a whopper.)

And Tucker even claimed I sponsored or co-sponsored 100 bills but had Z-E-R-O bills pass when I was in the Senate. Obviously I had bills that passed, but Tucker correctly counted on the public not checking and the press keeping his dirty little secret. The proof that I had bills that passed as a Senator has been available on the NC General Assembly web site for years, but the fact I was elected Senate Republican Whip should tell anyone with any knowledge of government that my peers thought I was pretty effective as a legislator.

Last week, in a feedback column he wrote in response to the Charlotte Observer article that suggested Pittenger voted on a bill for his own personal profit, Pittenger used my name three times in an attempt to deceive the public by tarring my reputation. His associates had been spreading lies about me for years, and I had just had enough.

I made the documents public that prove Pittenger is lying when he denies responsibility for an annexation he engineered as a legislator to make property he owned more valuable. Take a look at the documents posted at RaleighReport.com. There is no doubt Pittenger, as a legislator, pushed the annexation that made him and his partners money.

The annexation bill I introduced had absolutely nothing to do with the Waxhaw annexation, contrary to the falsehoods spread by Pittenger and his allies. In fact, as the record shows, I refused to support Pittenger’s annexation unless I was permitted to add an amendment making it crystal clear my bill couldn’t be used in any way in connection with his proposed annexation.

Pittenger claimed it was OK to vote for a bill that made him money because it was a local bill and “100 per cent of local bills pass” but that too is a lie and anyone who knows much about the NC legislature knows it. I’ve personally helped kill local bills, and that is why Pittenger sought my support for his annexation. I didn’t think I could kill his bill since he already had Black and Basnight on board, but he was sufficiently concerned that he accepted my amendment.

The people who attack Pendergraph because he became a Democrat when that party controlled the state to such an extent you couldn’t get a government job as a Republican apparently see nothing wrong with Pittenger working with Democrats like David Hoyle and Pryor Gibson to obtain state funds to build the Garden Parkway. Which is worse? Registering as a Democrat when that was the only way to even participate in the political process because there weren’t even Republican candidates in most races, or distributing a fraudulent document in the NC Senate earlier this year to obtain millions of dollars in funding for a road that is of little or no public benefit?

I draw a strong distinction between political differences and downright dishonesty. Honest people can disagree on any number of issues, but when someone persists in dishonesty beyond any possibility of honest error, that should be a warning to onlookers.

If someone seeking public office says the right things in public and give money to causes you support, are you willing to ignore dishonesty? If you claim you believe in the Golden Rule, ask yourself how you would feel if people who had no problem working with the worst Democrats in Raleigh spent serious money spreading lies about you to divert attention from their misdeeds.

And if that doesn’t persuade you to reject Pittenger, consider the following cautionary tale:

Once upon a time a politician took a bribe to vote a certain way, but when the time came to vote he did the opposite of what he was paid to do. The people who bribed him went looking for him, furious that he had deceived them, but he just laughed at their anger and said, “Heck, fellows, why so upset? You knew when I took your money that I was dishonest.”

If you know someone is willing to lie to avoid responsibility, why would you trust him to represent you?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 11th, 2012 at 11:32 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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